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LIGO SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS -- Sanichiro
Yoshida, assistant professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University,
reviews data with Southeastern students Raghuveer Dodda, a computer sciences
major from India, and Kristin Rogillio, physics major from Walker, at the
LIGO Observatory in Livingston. The two students were accepted into the
summer research program at LIGO and will work under the direction of Yoshida,
a collaborating scientist at the facility.
PHYSICS STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS HAMMOND -- Two Southeastern
Louisiana University students have been awarded prestigious summer research
opportunities at the LIGO Observatory in Livingston, while another has
earned a national fellowship for research into plasma physics and fusion
energy.
Raghuveer Dodda, a computer sciences
major from India, and Kristin Rogillio, a physics major from Walker, have
each received a $5,000 stipend to work in the LIGO summer research program
administered by the California Institute of Technology and funded by the
National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program.
Physics major Tiffany Findley of Prairieville received a National Undergraduate
Fellowship in Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy Sciences funded by the United
States Department of Energy. She is one of only 25 students nationwide
selected for the fellowship and will receive a $4,800 stipend for her work.
Dodda and Rogillio will perform
research under the direction of Sanichiro Yoshida, assistant professor
of physics at Southeastern and collaborating scientist at LIGO.
LIGO – which stands for Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – is focused on researching
gravitational waves from sources such as black hole collisions, pulsations
of newborn neutron stars and the background remnants of the Big Bang itself.
Funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by the California
Institute of Technology, the LIGO Observatory in Livingston is one of only
six such installations in the world. The students will be expected to present
findings of their research at a LIGO Scientific Collaboration meeting later
in the summer.
Findley, who earned a LIGO research
fellowship last year, will join other recipients for an intense one-week
course on plasma physics and fusion energy given by research scientists
and faculty at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. She
will spend the rest of the summer working on a research project with Daniel
McCarthy, head of the department of chemistry and physics at Southeastern.
A scientist specializing in plasma physics and fusion energy, McCarthy
will serve as her research mentor.
“It is truly gratifying to see
our students earning these prestigious research opportunities,” McCarthy
said. “It reflects on the quality of students we are attracting to our
program as well as on our faculty who have helped prepare them. The chance
to perform this level of research as undergraduates will be invaluable
for their future careers.”